@miztressuz , I posted this promotion to the gift card thread on
Post #18052 along with a link to your thread.
Target Weekly ad is offering this credit card promotion.
View attachment 782917
Thanks
@FoxC63 !
This is a nice promotion, $50 is generally their highest offer. The RedCard Reloadable Account has GC potential. It doesn’t list any restrictions and it’s a statement credit instead of a coupon. Just be sure to do
one transaction of $50+ within 45 days of registering the card. I can’t see why that wouldn’t work for a GC purchase. (ETA:
Followup Reloadable DP)
For those who are familiar with the RedCard coupon game, note that they have made some recent changes where you can’t double dip the coupon anymore and, for the hardcore, there’s been chatter about churning restrictions. Check out the comments on DoC for updates from more knowledgeable folks than I. (link -
DoctorOfCredit, see Comments)
For those who are not familiar with Target’s RedCard and their various options, here’s a quicky primer to help decide which card (if any!) may work for you.
Target provides 4 RedCard options –
- Credit: Store credit card that can only be used at Target
- Debit: Store debit card that can only be used at Target, linked to your existing checking account
- Reloadable: Prepaid Visa card that can be used at Target or anywhere Visa is accepted
- MasterCard: *Product Change only option, by invitation*
All cards receive the same 5% of Target purchases, including 3rd party GC’s.
This is not a loophole, they advertise this fact and use it as a selling feature of the card! In fact, they use a Disney GC to advertise it, they know, they encourage it. 5% is the minimum discount you should accept when doing Disney GC deals, for this reason. They also have free shipping when using the card, extended returns, and exclusive offers. See the full list at
https://www.target.com/redcard
RedCard Credit: Works just like any other store card, can only be used at Target, gets you all the Target benefits. It does require a PIN as it's a Chip+PIN system, but it's really a credit card. Since this is a store only card, it should bypass the Chase 5/24 rule but YMMV. The automated approval systems have ignored store only cards when calculating 5/24 if they can identify them from the CR. When they haven’t ignored them or if you have to recon with a human for another reason, very YMMV if the rep you get is knowledgeable enough, or cares enough, to exclude that when calculating 5/24.
It's only use is Target purchases but has the potential to be upgraded into a MasterCard which can be a little more useful. We’ve also mentioned in the thread here some ways you can pay off the credit card with in store payments.
RedCard Debit: The card is linked to an existing checking account that you provided at signup. It works similar to your bank debit card except that it only works at Target. What happens is Target creates a EFT for the amount of your purchase to withdraw it from your checking account. The transaction appears within a day or so of your Target trip. This means there’s a bit of a delay and they don’t have real time access to your bank account balance, so it’s possible to actually be declined when making a purchase or potentially overdraw your account. You do get a bit of a ‘credit limit’ because of that, with your initial limit being based on your account balance at the time of signup. Once you use the card more that ‘limit’ increases as you establish a history. However, since it's not a credit card it does not affect anything else you may be doing in the churning/points game.
If you go this route I recommend having a balance higher than what you expect your transactions to be in your account when you apply and link the account. No guarantee on what ‘credit limit’ they give you initially but can’t hurt. Also personal preference, I wouldn’t link it to my main checking account, I’d use a separate account that I plan to hold long term for stuff like this.
RedCard Reloadable: This is a prepaid Visa card along the lines of Serve, Bluebird, or Netspend, GreenDot, etc. It only has access to the money you prepay into the account. You load it either with cash, bank transfers, or direct deposit. Once you have money balance available, then you use it at Target or anywhere Visa is accepted - just like a normal debit card. There are no minimum balances or other monthly fees, so you could just move money in when you expect to make a purchase so that you don’t have cash sitting there not working for you for long periods of time. This takes some planning though. If you’re an active Target shopper, you could have your expected Target budget direct deposited into it to keep it funded. (also a way to stick to that budget!
)
This product is being administered by Incomm Payments, who also administer Serve and Bluebird accounts. If you’ve been banned by either of those products, then that ban seems to extend to RC Reloadable too. At the moment I haven’t come across any success stories of loading it in-store with anything other than cash. For those familiar with Serve and Bluebird, you know this is a bummer.
RedCard MasterCard: This is an invitation only product now. You must have a RC Credit card first and then be selected by the bank to be upgraded to the MasterCard version. Has all the same benefits as the store credit card
plus can be used anywhere MC is accepted and is a true Chip and Pin card. It has a rewards program where purchases outside of Target get 1% back in rewards with gas and dining purchases getting 2% back. Once you reach $10 in rewards, then you can request a Target GC for the amount. You can only request the GC after meeting the $10 threshold each time. There’s also no FTFs so with the Chip & Pin functionality, it’s a free backup for international charges that are finicky with Chip+Signature cards (i.e., the vast majority of US issued cards). I've used it overseas several times, no issues, worked nicely for a gas pump in Iceland that didn't like my other MC option.
Not sure what triggers the invitation. Some people are invited fairly quickly, others take years. It seems that they have a periodic process where they review accounts and send out invites, as I see groupings of discussion activity. A theme I noticed lately is credit limit increases before being contacted. I’m speculating that once you reach a credit threshold they evaluate the account history and make invitations to good candidates. I’m not entirely sure, I have had my MC since before they went to this invite only model. (I’ve actually had mine since it was a Visa pre-data breach changeover to MC. Do I have any old timers that remember the 10% shopping
DAY as the reward?)
A minor concern to consider for this upgrade is 5/24 eligibility. Once the account is changed to a full revolving account, it becomes part of your 5/24 count. It should retain the original opening date; however, I’m still looking for a solid DP to confirm that. So if you’ve had the card for a few years, not a problem. If you’re one of the chosen ones that are selected quickly, then it has a potential to derail Chase plans. Just food for thought.
After all that, let’s checkout the current sign up bonus!
If you are approved for the Credit or Debit version then you’ll receive a paper coupon in the envelope with your card. You now have to scan that into your Target Circle account to be able to use it. (This is how they stopped the double dipping!) Once it’s in your account you have to apply it to your order. It can only be used once! So make sure everything in the order is eligible before finalizing the purchase as it can be hard, if not impossible, to recover. There is a long list of exclusions, which makes you wonder if there’s anything it can be used on, but considering the thousands of products that Target carries, it’s not that bad. Notably though, it will
not work on Gift Cards (like Disney, Chipotle, Target, Delta, etc.) or Prepaid cards (like phone cards, game credits, Visa/MC/AmEx, etc.) and popular brands like
Lego or Barbie, or popular items like Nintendo Switch or PlayStaton 5. After you’ve double checked that your eligible purchases total $50 or more, then you can checkout and enjoy!
If approved for the Reloadable version, you have to activate the card online when it arrives and then make a
single purchase of $50 or more on the card (within 45 days of registration). Within 30 days of the transaction, they’ll give you a $50 statement credit. You can do it in store or online, but, keep in mind that online transactions are split according to shipments. If you have multiple items that total $50 but are shipped separately, according to the terms, you wouldn’t get the credit.
With such a small amount in play, why are we even talking about this when I can get hundreds from signing up for another card?
These offers were more lucrative when you could double dip the paper coupon both instore and online and you could churn through multiple debit cards a year. Target is finally finding ways to combat that. The usual coupon is $40 so the $50 option and bringing back the Reloadable eligibility for it is a positive change. Now if you see some chatter about it, hopefully you have some basis to evaluate how it will or won't work with your plans; and if it's worth further research.
ETA: Also you can hold all 3 products - credit, debit, reloadable - at the same time.
I was planning on bringing mostly summer clothes but the weather lately there has been 60s as a high so I packed some long sleeves, pants, and jackets just in case even though it’s looking like it’ll be warm when we’re there
